IF a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush - another point towards nesting this side of League One's safety buffer must be viewed as a further fledgling step on the flight path to survival.

Forget games-in-hand versus points-on-the-board abacus-style totting-up procedures and what have you . . . Richie Wellens' Latics side are too good to go down.

There - I've said it.

For a team who have spent the entire season perched between 'going' and 'not quite gone' to display such swagger is neither cocky or cuckoo - and certainly not arrogant. Wings (or rather attacking full backs) will keep the good ship afloat.

Wilfried Moimbe on the left, and Rob Hunt opposite, don't usually venture that far on their holidays. The rampaging pair never stopped pecking away at Walsall - migrating deep into unchartered territory with endless, boundless, enthusiasm. 

Dominant Latics sit three points clear of the drop zone after they were forced to settle for a share of the crumbs despite controlling an entertaining encounter at rain-soaked Boundary Park.

Although the visitors edged in front through Jack Fitzwater on 34 minutes, Duckens Nazon’s brilliant leveller on the stroke of half time put Athletic in the ascendency as Richie Wellens' men went on to dictate proceedings.

With Kean Bryan sidelined for what looks like the rest of the season, Anthony Gerrard made a surprise return from a calf strain to skipper Latics with the manager opting for wily experience over youthful exuberance. Teenage talent Tom Hamer remained on the bench.

Nazon started alongside Eoin Doyle in attack with Tope Obadeyi making way.

Considering the obvious benefits three points would bring for Athletic, it's worth remembering a win for Walsall would have all-but-guaranteed safety for the Saddlers. Under those circumstances then, an open contest was always on the cards.

In a lively start played at a frantic pace, both sides were up for the battle with a flurry of half-chances at both ends as Athletic attacked the Rochdale Road Stand in the first half.

Julian Ngoy ought to have done better than nod a Kieron Morris cross over the top from close range on 13 minutes. Nazon’s audacious overhead kick two minutes later simply deserved more. Instead, it sailed over the crossbar.

In parts, the hosts played some tasty stuff at the kind of tempo to lift the gloom on a murky night under the Boundary Park lights.

Both full backs were making it their duty to bomb on at any given opportunity - Moimbe sure has some energy - while Dan Gardner and Ousmane Fane were bang in the mood in the engine room and Nazon was involved in some eye-catching build-up play.

How quickly things can change.

Fitzwater’s header past Placide after the Haitian had saved Luke Leahy’s initial aerial effort flattened the atmosphere in an instant.

Nazon’s equaliser on the stroke of half time was crucial in its timing as much as anything else.

Showing neat control, the on-loan Wolves frontman jinked past two defenders before drilling a low shot into the corner past Walsall ’keeper Liam Roberts. Relief all round.

Latics were far from done and started the second half on the front-foot as the visiting defence had to contend with horizontal drizzle and wind in their faces.

When Jack Byrne tried his luck from a long-range free-kick on 54 minutes, his reasoning couldn’t be faulted. In conditions like those, why not?

With Athletic’s attacking threat as relentless as the rain, they continued to knock on the door with increasing regularity but without reward.

Roberts was forced to backpedal as Fitzwater came within a whisker of putting through his own net after a goalmouth scramble on 58 minutes.

Then Nazon thought he'd put the home side in front on the hour mark but his sizzling drive was tipped behind for a corner by Roberts.

Fane – yes, Ousmane Fane, the man without a single career goal to his name – even went close with a drilled effort, such was Athletic’s dominance.

Placide had to be alert to tip Jon Guthrie’s point-blank header over the bar as Latics were very nearly hit with a sucker punch in the dying minutes before another scramble at the other end led to a last-ditch clearance off the line.

LATICS (4-4-2): Placide 7, Hunt 7, Moimbe 7, Gerrard 7, Edmundson 7; FANE 8, Gardner 7, McEleney 6 (Obadeyi 77, 6), Byrne 6 (Davies 89); Nazon 7 (Amadi-Holloway 68, 6), Doyle 6. Subs (not used): De la Paz, Pringle, Nepomuceno, Hamer. Booked: Amadi-Holloway.

WALSALL: Roberts, Leahy, Dobson, Guthrie, Devlin, Chambers, Morris, Kinsella, Ngoy (Shaibu 68), Bakayoko, Fitzwater. Subs (not used): Gillespie, Cuvelier, Oztumer, Flanagan, Roberts, Kouhyar. Booked: Devlin.

Attendance: 3,424 (237 away) Referee: Darren England.